This invention relates generally to safety devices and, more particularly, to a system for rescuing and retrieving a person who has fallen overboard from a boat or is unintentionally in the water otherwise in the water and that utilizes a launching device for propelling a net assembly to spread over an area of water where the person overboard is located.
Unfortunately, a person who falls overboard from a boat or ship often succumbs to drowning or frigid conditions before he can be rescued. There are five (5) steps to successfully recovering someone who has gone overboard: (1) Getting floatation to the victim (2) Locating and keeping the victim in sight; (3) Returning to the victim in order to render aid, (4) Connecting the victim to the boat; and (5) Recovering the victim into the boat. Unfortunately, more than half of all persons who fall overboard are not recovered alive. The biggest problem with making such a rescue is locating the victim and returning the boat in time to rescue the person. Unfortunately, the time required to attempt a rescue often takes more time than a victim has, thus ending in tragedy. Similarly, it can require significant time to rescue persons who get caught in rip currents or fall through ice, which can also lead to tragedy.
Various products have been proposed in the prior art to improve the ability and results of attempting to rescue and recover a victim who has fallen overboard from a boat. Although assumably effective for their intended purposes, the existing products and proposals do not provide a net assembly or a method of delivery that is likely to improve the chances of successfully rescuing and retrieving a person who has fallen overboard. For instance, a flotation device only covers the specific area of the float—so it only saves the victim if it can be positioned directly with the victim. Similarly, a rope (with or without a flotation device) is a line in the water, covering only the length of the rope and only in one direction or dimension. Further, traditional rescue devices can only rescue a single victim at a time, making for difficult decisions by first responders regarding which victim to rescue if there are multiple victims in the water.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a person-in-the-water rescue and recovery system that provides a net assembly that can blanket a large area in which a person-in-the-water victim (or victims) is likely to be recovered. Further, it would be desirable to have a person-in-the-water rescue and recovery system that provides a launching device for propelling the net assembly into the immediate vicinity of the person-in-the-water victim. In addition, it would be desirable to have a floating net assembly that includes inflatable net spreader members that keep the net assembly from tangling or shrinking in size once in the water. Still further, it would be desirable to have a net assembly that includes net portions spaced apart so as not to cover up the victim to be rescued.